Are You Confusing Humility with Invisibility?

There's a sentence I keep hearing from Christian women in business: "If God really wants me to have a client, he'll bring them to me." And yes, he can. God is a miracle worker. But more often than not, building what he's asked you to build is going to require you to work.

I say that as a recovering hustle culture junkie. For years in corporate America I believed that if I worked harder and longer, I'd finally feel fulfilled. I didn't. I was burned out and missing time with my husband, my kids and my friends. So I'm glad to see women walking away from hustle. I'm just watching some of them swing so far the other way that they stop doing the work at all.

The servant who was afraid

Hustle culture is rooted in fear and ties your worth to your productivity. Biblical work is rooted in obedience: you do the work, you trust God with the outcome, and you actually rest. Work goes back to Genesis 2, before the fall, so it was never meant as a punishment.

In Matthew 25, the servant who buried his talent said he did it because he was afraid. The master didn't call that caution or humility. He called him wicked and lazy. I've done my own version of burying it. For a long time I marketed The Leaders' Table vaguely because I was afraid of offending or excluding anyone, so the Christian women I wanted to reach didn't know I was talking to them. When I changed my events from networking for women in business to networking for Christian women in business, those women started showing up and joining.

Humble and visible

Recently one of our members asked us to look at her social media. She has a heart of gold and wants her organization to be about the people she serves, so she rarely shows her face. We talked about how people want to know who they're investing in. Right afterward, God reminded me of Matthew 5:14, that a city on a hill can't be hidden. Maybe the people seeing our content need to see the light that's in us.

For me, diligent work means sending invites, following up and keeping my calendar open for sales calls, with guardrails: no weekends, no evenings, and room for my kids. I do the work, and God does the results.

So here's the question I'm asking myself, too: are you pretending to be humble so that you don't have to be visible?

Listen to the full episode here:

Scripture referenced

• Genesis 2:15: God puts Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it

• Matthew 4:5–7: Jesus answers, do not put the Lord your God to the test

• Matthew 5:14: a city on a hill cannot be hidden

• Matthew 6:26, 33: the birds of the air, and seek first his kingdom

• Matthew 25:14–30: the parable of the talents

• Luke 16:10: whoever is faithful with little can be trusted with much

FAQs

Should I wait on God to bring me clients?

God can bring you a client out of nowhere, but he usually works through your diligence. If he's told you to build, do the work and trust him with the outcome.

What's the difference between biblical work and hustle culture?

Hustle culture is rooted in fear and ties your worth to your productivity. Biblical work is rooted in obedience, trusts God for the results, and includes rest.

Is it prideful to market my business as a Christian?

You can be bold, obedient and visible and still be humble about the fact that the outcomes come from the Lord.